Around the mid-80's, the MPAA really started to crack down on violence in the movies, in particular as a direct reaction to the enormous- and controversial- popularity of the slasher movie. With most of these types of movies heavily reliant on the gore effects to deliver the goods, it effectively helped kill the much-reviled sub-genre, as it robbed fans of what they were largely there to see.
Without the sweet kills to revel in, in other words, viewers were left with one too many films with practically the same plot, and that plot was definitely starting to show some seams. The big names: Jason, Freddy and perhaps Chucky and Pinhead, started to lean into how ludicrous things had become and became almost caricatures of themselves.
After a long and protracted legal battle, Michael Myers rejoined their ranks in 1995 with Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, having, by then, been absent since 1989- a lifetime in the slasher movies era. While an admirable attempt to tie in all the disparate elements of the franchise up to that point and make Michael scary again in the process, most fans hated the whole "Cult of Thorn" thing and the film was crucified by critics as being nonsensical and often ridiculous.
It also under-performed at the box office, so it was back to the drawing board to figure out how to proceed next. Curse screenwriter Daniel Farrands took another stab at the franchise, including a scene which once again tried to tie everything together, but his script was ultimately turned down, and another writer, Robert Zappia, was hired. It was his idea to set the film in a fenced-in boarding school.
Then a little movie by the name of Scream came along in 1996 and, thanks to extremely positive word of mouth, became a massive hit, reviving the dead-in-the-water slasher sub-genre for an all-new generation. Fortunately for them, Dimension Films not only released Scream, but also had up-and-coming talent, writer Kevin Williamson, under contract.
Williamson set about concocting a story for the next Halloween film, and was delighted to find that, after all this time, original star Jamie Lee Curtis was willing to come back for another round. Indeed, she suggested that they put the band back together, as it were, and get the original crew back on-board, including director John Carpenter. Carpenter agreed, but wanted a $10 million directing fee and a three-picture deal with Dimension to do it.
The Weinsteins, who ran Dimension and its parent company, Miramax, at the time, and producer Moustapha Akkad, balked, and sent Carpenter packing. Curtis was upset at this development, but remained on-board, suggesting perhaps Steve Miner to take Carpenter's place, with whom she had worked with on the romantic drama Forever Young.
Miner, of course, was no stranger to the slasher and horror movie genre, having directed not one, but two Friday the 13th films, as well as the well-received House and Warlock, both of which spawned franchises.
Given this development, the finished film shoehorns in a tongue-in-cheek nod to Michael's "competition," as a character is shown sporting a hockey mask in a jump scare early on in the film. Later on, said character ends up dead, by way of an ice skate blade to the face, the film's way of implying that Michael would trump Jason in a battle, a la the movie Jason vs. Freddy.
The script went through many drafts, with various different approaches and outcomes resulting. In most of the early drafts, Halloween 4-6 continued to remain canon, with one character delivering a oral class report about "The Haddonfield Murders" and how Laurie died in a car accident and Michael eventually came after her niece, Jamie, as seen in the previous movies. The idea was for Laurie, aka Keri Tate, to find out about her "other" child's fate this way and freak out and have to leave the classroom, traumatized.
In the end, though, the producers decided to, for the first time, completely ret-con everything that had happened up to this point, except for the first two movies. Obviously, the Rob Zombie Halloweens would completely reboot the franchise altogether, while the current one would go this one one better, scrapping all but the first film, and ignoring even Halloween II.
In this film's time-line, both Michael and Dr. Loomis supposedly died in the fire, but a freaked-out Laurie, still convinced Michael was still out there after his body was never recovered from the fire, changed her name to Keri Tate and went into hiding in California.
Still suffering from PTSD from her experiences, and heavily medicated, as well as a functioning alcoholic, Keri has managed to work her way up to becoming Headmistress at Hillcrest Academy, where she is raising her son, John (Josh Hartnett, in his film debut), who attends said school. She also dates the school's guidance counselor, Will (Adam Arkin).
Originally, the idea was for what was eventually revealed to be a copy-cat killer posing as Michael Myers to come after Laurie, after finding out where she lived via ransacking the daughter of Dr. Loomis' home and hacking into her computer to find the files on Laurie and her new identity and where she lived. This was later changed, as the producers feared that fans wouldn't like the twist, taking note of how upset they were when Friday the 13th, Part Five: A New Beginning tried the same thing, more or less.
Williamson had the novel idea of instead bringing back Nancy Stephens, aka Nurse Marion Chambers, from the first two films, and have Michael trash her house to find the necessary info on Laurie, as well as take care of some unfinished business by killing another one that got away, plus some neighbors who got in the way- one of which was a young, then-future star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was on the moderately successful TV sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun at the time.
The final film combined elements of Robert Zappia's story-line, along with that of another screenwriter, Matt Greenberg, with Williamson "punching up" the screenplay with his trademark pop-culture-heavy dialogue and some clever in-jokes. For instance, Curtis' IRL mom Janet Leigh, the OG Scream Queen from Alfred Hitchcock's seminal Psycho, was cast as Curtis' secretary, in a role for which another SQ, PJ Soles, of the original film fame was reportedly considered.
Over the course of the film, we see Leigh in her familiar car from Psycho and another character wise-cracks how John will end up running a "weird hotel in the middle of nowhere" with his mother, another nod to the film. We also hear a nod to the famed Psycho music in the film's score when Leigh appears. Leigh's character also directly quotes the original Halloween, after she accidentally scares Curtis' character, and says: "It's Halloween. I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare." "I've had my share," quips Keri/Laurie.
In addition, Williamson's then-current film, Scream 2, crops up in one scene. Fun fact: the film playing was originally supposed to be So I Married an Axe Murderer, starring another famous Myers: Mike, of SNL fame, in what was intended to be a "meta"-joke. Director Rob Zombie would eventually follow through on this in his Halloween II, which references the comedian in a scene set on a talk show hosted by Chris Hardwick and featuring "Weird" Al Yankovic. Now THAT'S meta, lol.
Most of the film plays out in typical Halloween movie style: a relatively isolated locale, a group of teens being stalked one by one, and a showdown between Laurie and Michael at the end, in which she emerges victorious. Originally, the Weinsteins, having tired already of the whole Michael Myers thing, given all the headaches each installment had caused, actually wanted to kill Myers off for real, and Williamson came up with an ending in which Michael was cut in half by a helicopter blade!
Producer Akkad wouldn't have any of it, though, and a new ending was concocted, in which Michael ridiculously strangles a paramedic, crushing his larynx so he can't speak, and switches clothes with him, down to the mask, then, when Laurie goes rogue and kidnaps "Michael," she actually ends up killing the paramedic instead, who can't speak up, because, you know, smashed throat. So, those of you thinking that this was nutbar idea the writers of the next film came up with to ret-con Michael's death in the previous installment now know the truth- it was all Williamson's doing.
Be that as it may, no one at the time knew any of that, so the initial reaction to the film was largely positive. Though Michael's kill-count was a little on the low side- not that it was very high in the original, either, mind you- overall, fans rejoiced seeing Curtis re-join the franchise, and especially liked seeing Laurie be pro-active again, unlike in her last film in the series, Halloween II. Watching Laurie battle to the death with Michael was really gratifying, and when I saw it in the theaters, I distinctly remember people standing up and clapping and cheering, which was something.
Factor in it being one of the more star-studded entries in the franchise, between a returning Curtis (and Stephens) and her mother, Janet Leigh, as well as then rising stars like Levitt, Hartnett and then-"Dawson's Creek" (also from Williamson) star Michelle Williams and the sexy and likable Jodi-Lyn O'Keefe (then on TV's "Nash Bridges"- also in her feature film debut), to say nothing of an amusing turn by rapper-turned-actor LL Cool J, and you have a solid little film that essentially delivered the goods.
There were a few issues with the film, however, that hurt it being as good as it could have been. In addition to the low kill-count, the mask- or should I say masks, as several different ones were used- looks all wrong, and at one point, is even augmented with CGI, which looks even more ridiculous. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here: you'd think by now they would have gotten such a seemingly easy thing right, but the mask creators (in this case, John Carl Beuchler and Greg Nicotero, who should both know better), just can't seem to nail it.
In addition, the score is a bit of a mess. Initially, composer John Ottoman was commissioned to do it, but the Weinsteins weren't happy with the results, likening them to a "Disney film," so they edited in some additional music taken from the Scream films and Mimic to augment the final results.
Needless to say, Ottoman was not pleased, and an official soundtrack was never released as a direct result. However, you can get a compilation album of the various music from label Varèse Sarabande, who also released some of the other soundtracks for the series. You can also listen to the full, original rejected score here and judge for yourself whether they made the right decision. (I don't hate it, but it doesn't sound very Halloween-ish, and is admittedly over-orchestrated.)
Until 2007's Halloween, by Rob Zombie, this was the highest-grossing film in the franchise, making some $55 million on a $15 million budget, a decided step up from the last few entries. As with many previous entries, there were a few deleted/extended scenes added to the TV version, which you can still see on FX. You can also check out the deleted scenes here.
Overall, H2O is a worthy addition to the franchise, and a decided step forward for a series that had seemed to lose its way in the previous few installments. It's great to see Curtis involved again, and if she should have quit while she was ahead, fans can simply do what they've been doing for years now and simply act as if the next movie doesn't exist. I'm tempted to do the same, but duty calls- with an emphasis on the "duty" part. (As in "doodie," lol. 😄 )
So, join me, if you dare, for my next installment, the dreaded Halloween: Resurrection. We're in the home stretch, people! 🎃
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